Pigmentation Related to Amiodarone

Figure 1. A 55-year-old man had blue-gray discoloration of the auricular and periauricular areas of his ears. In 1985, he had had a large anterior myocardial infarction during aortic-valve replacement. Three years later, he had begun to take 400 mg of amiodarone per day for persistent ventricular tachycardia. While taking amiodarone, he began to have photosensitivity, followed by progressive blue-gray pigmentation of areas of his head and face that were exposed to the sun. This pigment has been shown to consist of electron-dense, compact, lamellar granules in the lysosomes of dermal macrophages, similar to lipofuscin. The use of protective clothing . . .